ABSTRACT
Groundwater today is the most extracted natural resource on the planet. Coupled with improvements in groundwater extraction and management technology, groundwater withdrawals have escalated from meeting strictly local needs to providing for the needs of whole nations. Expanded reliance on groundwater as a chief source of freshwater is due, in part, to growth in industry, agriculture, and global population. Most industrialized nations that experienced the boom in groundwater use, such as United States and Japan, have seen leveling off or even perhaps a slight decrease in abstraction rates. Transboundary groundwater resources face considerable threats from other human activities, including contamination resulting from agricultural, municipal, and industrial activities. Groundwater resources have historically been both neglected under and often omitted from international agreements and legal norms, and therefore cursorily misunderstood among the lay, political, and legal communities. Limited hydrogeological and other technical knowledge about numerous transboundary aquifers around world has hampered the development of both aquifer-specific and regional and international management regimes.
